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Brandon Watson Director, Developer Platforms [email protected] twitter.com/ brandonwatson Product Management for Hackers

Product Management For Hackers

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This is a deck that I presented for the Startup Weekend event which was hosted on the Microsoft campus. http://bizspark.startupweekend.com. It was a great time, and awesome to see so many entrepreneurs and hackers come together and build amazing products in such a short period of time. Even more encouraging was how many people built on top of the .NET stack from Microsoft. During the weekend, I gave this talk on product management for hackers. I received quite a few requests for the slides, so I annotated them and have posted them for you all to enjoy.

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Brandon WatsonDirector, Developer [email protected] twitter.com/brandonwatson

Product Management for Hackers

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What You Need To Know

This will be a fast and furious discussion of Product Management for hackers who are either: Long on development talent, but short on business

acumen

Or think marketing types are idiots =)

All hard data taken from my last company (IMSafer, sold in 2008)

Content adapted from my book in progress: The Failing Point - www.TheFailingPoint.com

Finally, this isn’t madness:

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Do I Have Coding Skills?

+The net result is funny, but you probably

don’t want to be in the same room, and cleaning it up could be messy

Yes, but it’s kind of like…

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Under No Circumstances Should You…

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Test Your Idea With Only One Person

Most of your friends are probably just like you

Most people are afraid of new things or things that involve risk

$340M sale

Sorry I told you not to do it Jeff…

RT @BrandonWatson Whatever you do, make sure you talk to more than one person about your product/service.

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Start Building The First Idea You Have

More than likely you are going to be wrong in the first go round

“I know what I want to say, I just don’t know how to say it.”

Take time and think through your idea to get an optimized result

RT @BrandonWatson It’s very easy to get caught up in designing first and thinking second. Understand the story/needs of your customer.

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Not Choose Your Name With Care

By what methods are people going to discover your product? (i.e. search engines)

Is it memorable & does it convey the right message?

RT @BrandonWatson Your name matters – it should be searchable, easy to spell/remember, and think about what URLs customers will type.

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Focus Only On The Competition

If you are going to build something, you should be doing it better

A market opportunity means your competitors are missing something – why only copy them?

Taking all the good from all the competitors is seldom the right answer

RT @BrandonWatson Your best ideas will come from your team and your own pain. Innovation seldom comes from copying.

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Write Code Before The Press Release

Helps set in your mind who your customers are and what the product does

Too many adjectives and you have nothing

Try writing the influential blog post first instead

RT @BrandonWatson Your best ideas will come from your team and your own pain. Innovation seldom comes from copying.

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Worry About Stats “Later”

Raise your hand if you like refactoring code

Raise your hand if you like refactoring database tables

RT @BrandonWatson Stats specific to your application should be a first party citizen. Build them into your product from day 1.

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Think AdWords Is All You Need

internet safetyonline safetyparental control softwarenet nannynetnanny

Keyword Clicks Impressions CTR CPC Avg Bid Total Costnet nanny 317 9,797 3.24% $0.74 $1.60 $235.57 parental control software 179 12,784 1.40% $0.89 $1.40 $160.10 driver safety online 2 8 25.00% $1.93 $4.63 $3.85 internet safety 87 4,272 2.04% $0.88 $1.60 $76.54 netnanny 78 2,937 2.66% $0.65 $1.45 $50.88 internet safety for kids 18 362 4.97% $0.93 $2.41 $16.65 internet safety children 2 63 3.17% $0.62 $2.58 $1.24 kids internet safety 13 216 6.02% $0.67 $1.61 $8.67 internet safety tips kids 2 28 7.14% $0.20 $1.31 $0.40 free parental control software 2 254 0.79% $0.31 $0.54 $0.62 best parental control software 5 430 1.16% $0.52 $0.82 $2.61 online safety 12 880 1.36% $0.79 $1.26 $9.48 net nanny software 30 1,411 2.13% $0.88 $1.66 $26.31 internet safety tips 10 287 3.48% $0.53 $1.67 $5.32 online safety training 25 1,443 1.73% $1.69 $1.54 $42.19 internet safety videos 2 27 7.41% $0.47 $1.55 $0.94 parental control software reviews 4 89 4.49% $0.44 $0.66 $1.75 online hunter safety course 0 2 0.00% $0.00 $1.39 $0.00 free net nanny 1 23 4.35% $0.20 $0.25 $0.20 internet safety for children 2 63 3.17% $0.62 $2.58 $1.24 nanny net 16 133 12.03% $1.06 $2.13 $16.97 internet safety software 7 451 1.55% $0.61 $0.65 $4.27 child internet safety 5 276 1.81% $1.01 $1.70 $5.04 free online safety training 0 64 0.00% $0.00 $0.86 $0.00 online safety tips 1 68 1.47% $1.55 $1.55 $1.55 internet safety rules 5 35 14.29% $0.55 $2.79 $2.76 safety training online 31 753 4.12% $1.51 $2.14 $46.86 internet safety lesson plans 0 15 0.00% $0.00 $2.00 $0.00 safety online 0 353 0.00% $0.00 $1.29 $0.00

856 37,524 2.28% $0.84 $ 722.01

You can only buy as much traffic as is searching for your product

Find alternatives

RT @BrandonWatson AdWords will only deliver as much traffic as is search for your product. Find alt. user acquisition sources.

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Not Understand Your User Funnel

What does success look like for your business?

How did your customers get to be customers?

Stages allow you to test and tweak, but too many cause unnecessary friction1,000 User

Signups 70% download 50% install 70% monitor an account

245Revenuable Customers

$1.67 /User Signup

$3.38 download

$6.76 / successfully install

$9.36 successfully monitor

Revenuable Customers

RT @BrandonWatson Understand your true customer acquisition cost – the cost of getting them to the point where they will pay you.

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RT @BrandonWatson The density of price is inversely proportional to the price itself. Raising prices is harder for lower starting prices.

Start With A Low Price To Attract Customers

Price

GravityFree can work, but can

you get over the penny gap?

Raising prices is way harder than lowering them

The lower your starting point, the faster the return to that price (i.e. higher gravity)

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RT @BrandonWatson Knowing the key numbers that run your business will help you spot trouble early.

Not Know Your Business’s “Number”

Most businesses boil down to one or a few numbers

Knowing them allows you to spot trouble early

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Signpost Zen

If you enjoyed the show:Please follow me on Twitter (@brandonwatson)Check out www.TheFailingPoint.com